Brvsh Stylus: Innovative, Elegant, & Stylish Stylus

I think there are two groups of iPad owners—those who use a stylus and those who don’t—I fall into the former group. I love using a stylus to sketch, take notes, work in iPhoto, and, yes, play Draw Something. The thing about using a stylus is you have to find the right one for you.

I think I’ve tried close to a dozen different stylii in the past couple years. And, frankly, they were all pretty boring. They were all pretty much a stick with a capacitive nib on them. Some had spongy nibs, others more rubbery, but just basic nibs. Not to mention there wasn’t really any style to them either. You know when you (or someone else) pulls out a really great pen and you notice it right away? When was the last time you really noticed someone’s stylus?

Exactly. Not eye catching, not interesting, not stylish. Well, the Brvsh stylus has all of those features, plus a couple other interesting things that make it a stylus worth looking at.

The folks at Brvsh pinged me and asked me if I wanted to try their nice stylus. I checked out the site and thought, now here is something different. The Brvsh isn’t just metal (which is nice), it’s triangular. And the nib—it retracts! Just like a pen. I’ve always worried that my stylus nibs were going to get more wear and tear in my bag than using it on my iPad. Oh, yeah, the other thing, the nib isn’t a “nib”, it’s a brush!

You might have seen other brush-like stylii before, but most of them are more like paint brushes than a nibs. The Brvsh is a hybrid of both, which given everything else—the shape, the material, the retracting nib-brush—makes this a really interesting stylus. A stylus that you will notice.

I’ve had the stylus for over a week and I think it is best suited to drawing over`writing. I found that it takes a little more pressure on the brush to make the screen respond than with other stylii I’ve tried (the standard nib kind). This takes some getting used to I found. My early attempts at writing and drawing were pretty sketchy at best. Lots of skips and gaps. After a while I got used to it, but I do have some reservations giving the Brvsh a wholehearted thumbs up.

First is the brush-nib. It’s a great idea and is certainly unique, but it isn’t perfect. Also if you’re looking at something to emulate a paint brush, this isn’t it either. Truthfully no brush-style styl5s emulates a paint brush. Maybe with a special stylus and a specially tuned app, but not for “regular” apps.

The other thing about the design is that since the pen is triangular there are only two ways to hold it. Most of us will hold it shirt clip up (btw a shirt clip is an awesome feature) so you will notice the brush developing a “bend” or wear pattern based on that. This isn’t a big deal now, and might never be a big deal, but unlike a “stick” you can’t just keep rotating the stylus in your hand to try to even out the wear on the tip.

All that said…

The Brvsh is a lovely stylus to look at and hold. The retractable nib is a great feature that I wish was available on more stylii (not to mention the shirt clip). I do enjoy using the Brvsh and have switched to using it all the time, but the brush nib isn’t perfect. Not perfect, but still good and certainly does the job.

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